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Edgefield County School Board Meeting Edgefielddaily.com web posted May 11, 2005 The Edgefield County School Board held their regular scheduled meeting tonight, May 10, 2005. Missing from the board was Chairwoman Sallie Cooks and Vice-chairman Scott Chitty took over in her absence. After calling the meeting to order, the pledge of allegiance, and invocation Chitty stated, without motion or vote, to enter into an executive session. Upon returning to open session Vice-chairman Chitty stated no action was taken and the suggested all the items discussed in executive session to be voted on at once. The items included the resignations of two custodians and two teachers, as well as maternity leave for two more teachers and two student appeals. After a motion and a second the board voted 6-0 to all. The board also approved a trip by Robin Herrin for the HOSA students to Nashville, Tenn. on June 20-27 for the National HOSA Leadership Conference. The board also approved the minutes of prior meetings as amended. Assistant superintendent David Mathis addressed the board on the nominations of Teacher of the Year stating, “we are taking nominations this week,” he said, “but we need to move up our selection process,” so to meet the state deadline of September 15th. Mr. Mathis also address the issue of summer school saying the students who apply will only be able to take english or math and that, “this is strictly a credit recovery program,” he said, not an opportunity to get ahead. Mr. Mathis also said the lowest possible failing grade that would be allowed to enter the program would be those who failed with at least a grade of 62. Anyone below that final grade needs to retake the course during the regular school year. He said the highest grade that students could get for the class would be 70. The cost of the program will be $150. Mr. Courtney addressed the board on maintenance items which included the roof replacement of the D wing at Strom Thurmond. He stated they had received six bids, two of which, including the low bid, had to be disqualified for incomplete bids. The projected cost the board had budgeted was $110,000. The low acceptable bid was by Greenville Roofing at $90,800. However Mr. Courtney asked to include the Health Center Building in Johnston, which houses the records for the school system, and that job would run $37, 700. “I know this takes us about $16,000 over the projected cost, but it needs to be done”, Courtney said. The board approved replacing both roofs at a cost of $128,300. The board then began an extended debate over the budget for Fiscal Year 2005-2006. Mr. Derrick stated, excluding the funds needed for Fox Creek High School the millage increase would be roughly 2.26 mills. To include all operational costs the required raise in the rate would be 8.53 mills. MR. Derrick stated the model for the budget was using a base rate of 4.43 mills which would require some funding from the Fund Balance. “If we use the 2.26 increase we’d have to cut $200,000 to $300,000 from the current budget. If we use the 8.53 we can add back in some of the items we took out,” he said. Vice-chairman Scott Chitty suggested basing the budget, “midway at 5.37 mills,” he said. Board member Brad Covar suggested looking at some of the areas he felt could be reduced such as the technology staff which was costing the system $70,000 a year. “I just think we have some issues there,” he said. The board agreed to rework the budget on the basis of a millage rate increase of 5.37 mills which Mr. Derrick said would reduce the impact of the budget on the Fund Balance actually adding in “between 50 and $60,000,” he said. Fox Creek High School was the reason for the large increase over last years budget which was stated to be “$2 million over last years,” Mr. Derrick stated. The new model would be ready by the next meeting Mr. Derrick said. A report on Fox Creek High School was to be heard but Mr. Derrick stated he had repeatedly contacted, called, and e-mailed the school for the information but, “they have not responded so I have nothing to report,” he said. Mr. Derrick said he had talked to Sherolyn Bishop but was unable to get her to respond to the inquiries. Superintendent Sharon Keesley addressed the board on a couple issues, one being the cost of out of county students attending Strom Thurmond. The cost, she said, would be $2546 for the next year. She also mentioned the AP and Duel Credit courses. In the AP classes she stated there were 40 students in the program and the students must take the AP exam and score at least a three in order to gain credit for the class. With nothing left on the agenda the meeting was adjourned. Upcoming: Exit Interviews for Seniors will be May 16, 2005 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in the Strom Thurmond library. The bi-annual joint County Council and School Board meeting will be May 18, 2005 at the District Office Conference Room at 6:00 pm. Return to Main Page
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